alt Hacker NewsWhen does a tool become "not just a tool"? Is there a complexity limit to what it can do before it becomes "more than a tool"?
If you had a tool that ONLY moralized on decisions, would that still be just a tool? Is the issue that it both does something else AND moralizes that is the issue?
I don't necessarily disagree that I personally don't want my tools to moralize, I don't know if that makes them categorically different or just a tool I don't want.
Yes, there is a complexity limit, but it is fuzzy and not perfectly well defined (and that's ok). Modern LLMs ride that line in a wild and interesting way.
It's really fun having become a biologist in recent years, and knowing that there's an entire field that uses living organisms (yeast or neutered E coli) as protein factories. I am bringing it up a bunch here because not only are these things used as tools, but they're literally alive!